Name In Coffin: Adolph

The name Adolph is of old german origin, and it means "noble wolf" or "majestic wolf". It is the name of a saint, and also a german and swedish royal name. A famous bearer is filmmaker Adolph Zukor, pictured above, who founded Paramount Pictures back in 1912.

Contrary to popular belief, the name had been downtrending long before World War II first started. Although that war may be to blame for the name's terrible numbers today, with a very low chance of making a comeback. Adolf Hitler is still well known man today, and since WWII is a prominent subject in every history class (and will most likely remain one), his name is certainly going to stick around. Yes, he spells it differently, but Adolf is just a variant spelling of Adolph, and pronounced the exact same way.

During the SSA era, Adolph peaked early on in 1883, when it was at a respectable #112. It remained a relatively popular name until 1918, where it started to fall more steadily. During the WWII years (1939-1945), the name fell from #453 to #555, not a dramatic drop. In fact, the name held around for several more years, up until 1970 to be exact, the last time it was ever on the ranking at #927. Variant spelling Adolf was never popular in the US, so it was never gonna take a big hit - the last time it was on the chart was in 1928.

How do these two spellings stand today? The spelling Adolph was used a mere 7 times in 2013, and Adolf didn't even register at all. This just proves how rejected Adolph has become - and for obvious reasons, why it's unlikely to ever come back. At least in the next few decades. It's just very hard not to associate the name with Hitler. I know it's unfair because there are so many serial killers named John or Michael, but none of them rank on the same muderous scale as Adolf Hitler. To be realistic, those 7 boys will probably get a few digs when they grow up, especially when they start learning about WWII. I'm one who usually says that kids these days just don't care about your name, but certain names like Adolph pretty much carry a target on them.

Personally, I'm not a big fan of the name to begin with, so it's no major loss for me. What about you guys? Do you think Adolph or Adolf could become usable in the future? Or are you like me, and you say "good riddance"? Let me know.